A senior Russian official has signaled that Moscow will not be satisfied with occupying four Ukrainian regions and could again try to capture the capital, Kyiv.
Deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, told Russian media agencies that Russia could “reach Kiev,” saying it could happen later, if not now.
You and G. W. Bush had something in common. A serious case of premature celebration.Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 6:31 pm .
Russia signals it could try to seize Kyiv
— saying the ‘regime must fall’
A senior Russian official has signaled that Moscow will not be satisfied with occupying four Ukrainian regions and could again try to capture the capital, Kyiv.
Deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, told Russian media agencies that Russia could “reach Kiev,” saying it could happen later, if not now.
Ukraine done .. unfortunately
.
Jens Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian Prime Minister and now Secretary General of NATO should be fired now, before it is too late. He announced he is giving Ukraine “permission” to use its soon to be delivered F-16s to launch attacks inside Russia.
This is equivalent to a NATO declaration of war. It is an irrational and dangerous move that needs to be quashed as soon as possible.
There is growing recognition in the United States and in Europe, that Ukraine can’t win its war with Russia. Even pro-Biden administration outlets such as CNBC are talking about a ceasefire.
The dilemma is this: If Ukraine cannot win a war against Russia, what should the US and NATO do next? They face a dilemma to which there is no quick or easy answer.
One option is to try and get a ceasefire arrangement, hold fake negotiations with Russia, and then resume the fighting after Ukraine trains yet another army and goes on the offensive again.
But Russia won’t buy that bucket of lard, since Western leaders, especially former German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly said that the Normandy-group negotiations with Russia in 2014 and 2015 (leading to the Minsk I and Minsk II agreements) were a ruse, intended to buy time while NATO trained Ukrainian troops, put huge intelligence assets to work against Russia, and delivered massive armaments to Ukraine’s army, preparing to fight once they were ready.
This lesson was a hard one, especially for Vladimir Putin, who trusted Merkel. Not any more. He won’t trust any European, but especially anyone from Germany. He now understands that all the “peace initiatives” promoted by German Chancellor Olof Schulz and French President Emmanuel Macron, were intended to deceive Russia.
.. unfortunately true LONDON — A failure to stand up to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “will remake the world as we know it,” the foreign ministers of Britain and Poland warned Saturday, as they urged deadlocked U.S. lawmakers to keep the funding flowing.
Cameron, a former British prime minister-turned-foreign-secretary, got short shrift earlier this month when he traveled to Washington to try to drum up support for Ukraine. U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, told the U.K.’s top diplomat to “kiss my ass.”
Nonc Hilaire wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 10:33 pm
https://x.com/kanekoathegreat/status/17 ... JrDBjLl66A
NYT reports on the CIA in Ukraine.
.
Typhoon wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2024 7:54 am
Merkel ranks as the third dumbest politician in German history.
Despite all your posts, no one wants to be Russian.
Anyways, why are you expending so much effort attempting to convince a handful of people?
Why not post one X [ex-Twitter} or Linkedin or TikTok or whatever.
At least you'd have a larger audience. Some of the naive might even agree with you.
.
.. things happened other way round. Ukraine's Defence Intelligence does not confirm transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia
Nonc Hilaire wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:49 pm IMG_4742.jpeg
The CIA has been secretly funding an army in the Ukraine to attack Russia and Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/worl ... russia-war
A breakaway region in Europe is asking Russia for protection.
In a special congress on Wednesday, politicians in Transnistria asked Moscow to guard it from “increasing pressure from Moldova,” and the Kremlin later said protecting its “compatriots” was a priority, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported.
If NATO is so much against sending troops to Ukraine, why doesn’t NATO demand that the soldiers already there be sent home?
On Monday, February 26, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany would not provide its Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine because doing so would require German troops to be sent there to operate them, just as the British are operating the Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles.
The British cried foul and accused Scholz of a “flagrant abuse of intelligence” – meaning that Scholz confirmed what everyone already knows, that NATO officers and trained personnel are in Ukraine operating weapons such as the Patriot and NASAM air defense system, the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, the British-French Storm Shadow cruise missile (SCALP-EG in France), and many other complex weapons provided to Ukraine.
The actual number of personnel from NATO countries in Ukraine isn’t known, but there is no doubt they are there in large numbers and they come from the United States, the UK, France, Poland, and others. When these “volunteers” are wounded or killed, what happened to them is obscured and their roles, often, are listed as medical or social.
Old OTNOT member Simple Minded referred me to the same interview. My as usual sweet and very humble response was:Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 6:23 am .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q3_FRVBd6w
Disaster .. must watch
Tucker @ it again
.
Lord Parodite wrote:
No secret: as a Dutch European I have to say to US citizens: stop listening to US citizens, Tucker Carlson or some once upon a time General or any other to explain foreign nations and overseas geopolitical realities to you. Give up. To know more about Russia and the Ukraine situation ask Europeans, especially eastern Europeans, the Baltics, Finland. Ordinary people, but also academics and military.
Tucker C. is a gem on internal US politics and culture wars but a miscarriage on everything he comments outside US borders. Given the surplus of US ignoramuses active in US foreign policy with no sign of improvement anytime soon, I hope for a minimum of 5% spending increase in Europe on defense and deterrence with the USA as a befriended ally in the background no longer in a NATO context.
I thank Trump reminding the EU bureaucrat weaklings to pay their NATO bills or f off. It could be the beginning of a more independent European defense force but there are very big bears on that road; the Wokish left here still thinks any army is dirty business. Because they are post-Christian messianic Unrealists, who are as dangerous as their psychopath twin brothers Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putler, Mussolini; all the leftwing and rightwing gangsters on record.
(left-right distinction here is meaningless of course: like there are no leftwing or rightwing rapists, murderers, bank robbers, crime syndicates – just gangsters and psychos taking a whole society hostage)
The army-haters double down at the moment when obviously the Russian psychopath bear proves, as-we-speak, he is still a murderous thug throwing bombs on old Ukrainian ladies and children while being extremely nostalgic about the USSR, wanting to restore as much as possible of that monster as he can.
Americans: Ukraine, Russia, it is not your problem. Here Tucker C is right. But also accept that you are too much a bunch of ignoramuses to get involved anyway. The US blind leading the Euro blind in a face-off with Putler and stop his wet USSR dreams that bring nothing but misery... no formula for success.
Parodite wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 7:54 pmOld OTNOT member Simple Minded referred me to the same interview. My as usual sweet and very humble response was:Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 6:23 am .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q3_FRVBd6w
Disaster .. must watch
Tucker @ it again
.
Lord Parodite wrote:
No secret: as a Dutch European I have to say to US citizens: stop listening to US citizens, Tucker Carlson or some once upon a time General or any other to explain foreign nations and overseas geopolitical realities to you. Give up. To know more about Russia and the Ukraine situation ask Europeans, especially eastern Europeans, the Baltics, Finland. Ordinary people, but also academics and military.
Tucker C. is a gem on internal US politics and culture wars but a miscarriage on everything he comments outside US borders. Given the surplus of US ignoramuses active in US foreign policy with no sign of improvement anytime soon, I hope for a minimum of 5% spending increase in Europe on defense and deterrence with the USA as a befriended ally in the background no longer in a NATO context.
I thank Trump reminding the EU bureaucrat weaklings to pay their NATO bills or f off. It could be the beginning of a more independent European defense force but there are very big bears on that road; the Wokish left here still thinks any army is dirty business. Because they are post-Christian messianic Unrealists, who are as dangerous as their psychopath twin brothers Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putler, Mussolini; all the leftwing and rightwing gangsters on record.
(left-right distinction here is meaningless of course: like there are no leftwing or rightwing rapists, murderers, bank robbers, crime syndicates – just gangsters and psychos taking a whole society hostage)
The army-haters double down at the moment when obviously the Russian psychopath bear proves, as-we-speak, he is still a murderous thug throwing bombs on old Ukrainian ladies and children while being extremely nostalgic about the USSR, wanting to restore as much as possible of that monster as he can.
Americans: Ukraine, Russia, it is not your problem. Here Tucker C is right. But also accept that you are too much a bunch of ignoramuses to get involved anyway. The US blind leading the Euro blind in a face-off with Putler and stop his wet USSR dreams that bring nothing but misery... no formula for success.
Parodite wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:04 pm HP you are beyond cure
Iranians do well in fantasy worlds.... always been like that.
Looks like silly KGB / FSB putty Putler managed to conquer and keep Donbass etc., but that can hardly be called a victory. Most of Ukraine intact, Putler a little rat and really afraid because nobody loves him. Like the Ceaușescu's in Romania completely delusional but they know when the love affair with their own people has officially ended. He can now only remain in power using more and more violent repression. Jealous of Navalny, man of hope, tall and handsome. Last desperate moves of a very mediocre Russian chess player. Putin lost. Very poor endgame.
The good majority of Russian people, now too afraid to express themselves, want to get rid of this Putin-KGB crime syndicate, stop Ukraine war and be normal neighbors in Europe, improve human rights in Russian society. Of course lots of old school corruption, oligarchs and considerable but small minority neo-Nazi ultra-nationalist brown shirts as also in Ukraine. The majority is good people, silenced, also in Belarus the other psycho state.
One day, we the people, normal and decent, just demand the end of wars, more democracy, a civilized world with respected borders, we will be victorious. There will be outliers like you cheerleading for the wrong guys of course.... but what’s new. Your best hopes are moving to Israel and explain the Jews there that those Askenazim don't belong there and should immediately leave. Just kidding: nowhere any hope for you.
Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia proper will unite in the future. Our histories are too much intertwined, we "belong". All we need is getting rid of the crooks, gangs and psychos. Popular uprising.
Iranian mad mad Mad mad mad mad mad mullahs can laugh all day and they should: not many days are left for them to enjoy anyways. The good Iranians will say enough is enough; Mad mad mad Mad mad mad mad mad mullahs and Theocratic Juntas have to go. Removed by force.
Remember Ceaușescu and his wife. This will be the fate of all repressive tyrannic delusional psychos and those cheerleading them. I'd stay in Canada if I were you.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince in an interview on Patrick Bet-David's podcast called for Ukraine to come to an "ugly peace" to save the country's future demographically.
ERIK PRINCE : We need to bring that war to a close because all Ukraine is doing right now is destroying itself demographically.
From desperation you now resort to quoting holy chewing gum!Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:30 pm
Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen
(1. Samuel 2,27-36)
No worries, I do see the complete and total picture in clearest detail. You just aren't ready yet for the amount of truth Lord Parodite is able to show you. The forces that drive me would overwhelm you. Chewing gum is fine of course for maintenance, but also a dog that won't hunt in your case. What you think you see as "big picture" is just a big fat pizza.Not sure you see the "Big Picture"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video ... raphically.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince in an interview on Patrick Bet-David's podcast called for Ukraine to come to an "ugly peace" to save the country's future demographically.
ERIK PRINCE : We need to bring that war to a close because all Ukraine is doing right now is destroying itself demographically.
You say this because you are not paying attention. West never thought of itself as "Center of Universe" because the West isn't somebody. In your mind "the West" is some sort of Crusader Knight, or perhaps a delusional POTUS, or an American Ignoramus who believes that everything that happens in the world is because of the USA. The proper definition of the West is: a collection of individuals who hold the individual as the corner stone of society. As anywhere however, individuals can suffer from delusions of grandeur.Europe must come to terms with that West no more West used 2B, is not anymore "center of the universe" .. other people's interest too of importance
They have no balls, only rockets. Hence they won’t procreate and take these lonely rockets with them into their grave. The song of the bearded virgins.Re Mull*hs, the characteristic of Iranian Shia is, they "flexible", they adapt to the ZeitGeist.
Nothing to add or detract.Parodite wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 9:48 pmFrom desperation you now resort to quoting holy chewing gum!Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:30 pm
Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen
(1. Samuel 2,27-36)
It won't save you I'm afraid.
No worries, I do see the complete and total picture in clearest detail. You just aren't ready yet for the amount of truth Lord Parodite is able to show you. The forces that drive me would overwhelm you. Chewing gum is fine of course for maintenance, but also a dog that won't hunt in your case. What you think you see as "big picture" is just a big fat pizza.Not sure you see the "Big Picture"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video ... raphically.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince in an interview on Patrick Bet-David's podcast called for Ukraine to come to an "ugly peace" to save the country's future demographically.
ERIK PRINCE : We need to bring that war to a close because all Ukraine is doing right now is destroying itself demographically.
I warned you but you decided to not listen: don't try inform yourself about realities outside of US borders by listening to what Americans say. Any American.
You correctly sense the US is in decline; it certainly is in a serious identity crisis. But you want to believe some Americans at least can make some good sense. You are way too optimistic. Vishnu sees it all: darkness is descending on the New World. A few last flickering lights can be seen, lone individuals with still 2 eyes functional, like there are Victor Davis Hanson, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi. Darkness sets in, winter is coming.
Other hopefuls are dim lights in the process of being switched off, like the overvalued Joe Rogan (who occasionally engages in smart gossip but not much else) or heroes like Jordan B. Peterson who now has created his own collection of dead bodies he picks apart like an efficient vulture, but will eventually eat himself in act of auto-cannibalism. While confusing this cannibalistic process with "we who wrestle with God".
You say this because you are not paying attention. West never thought of itself as "Center of Universe" because the West isn't somebody. In your mind "the West" is some sort of Crusader Knight, or perhaps a delusional POTUS, or an American Ignoramus who believes that everything that happens in the world is because of the USA. The proper definition of the West is: a collection of individuals who hold the individual as the corner stone of society. As anywhere however, individuals can suffer from delusions of grandeur.Europe must come to terms with that West no more West used 2B, is not anymore "center of the universe" .. other people's interest too of importance
Famous delusions of Grandeur in the West: Americans love to believe Ronald Reagan brought down the USSR. Or that the orange revolution in Ukraine was entirely a US generated proxy "coupe" against Russia by that originally Ukrainian bitch Nuland and her delusional freaky husband. They played a role but were not vital at all. Many other and much bigger forces and factors were at work. Lots of complexity and uncertainty too as in climate change science. Never only one variable or parameter at work. Wise Iranians don't fall for such one-trick pony claptrap. You better wise up and honor your forebears.
For some reason you bought into same delusions of grandeur Americans like to buy into. Reason is obvious: because you have Persian delusions of grandeur you see the same in others with similar tendencies. That's all.
And: Europe is different from America. American Century delusional US dream is obvious, but "European Century" was never a dream. European delusions of grandeur exist, but they go inward: wet dream of European Union, i.e. a United States of Europe. Europeans, after giving birth to the USA, have historically been most busy with trying to dominate the European neighborhood; recurring feudal feuds between various royal families and individuals with their own “royal” agenda.
Hitler's "Thousand year Reich" ambition was just another iteration of same, but as all the efforts before Adolfchen also this one failed and Europeans defaulted back to their mostly tribal units and borders. Latest attempt to dominate is EU in Brussels: a techno-burocrat takeover and hollowing out of national sovereignty of its member states. Euro currency was introduced as the first move to this unification: rest would follow by necessity, was the theory and hope. But now tribal forces are coming back, as they always do here.
They have no balls, only rockets. Hence they won’t procreate and take these lonely rockets with them into their grave. The song of the bearded virgins.Re Mull*hs, the characteristic of Iranian Shia is, they "flexible", they adapt to the ZeitGeist.
Parodite wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 9:48 pmFrom desperation you now resort to quoting holy chewing gum!Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:30 pm
Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen
(1. Samuel 2,27-36)
It won't save you I'm afraid.
No worries, I do see the complete and total picture in clearest detail. You just aren't ready yet for the amount of truth Lord Parodite is able to show you. The forces that drive me would overwhelm you. Chewing gum is fine of course for maintenance, but also a dog that won't hunt in your case. What you think you see as "big picture" is just a big fat pizza.Not sure you see the "Big Picture"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video ... raphically.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince in an interview on Patrick Bet-David's podcast called for Ukraine to come to an "ugly peace" to save the country's future demographically.
ERIK PRINCE : We need to bring that war to a close because all Ukraine is doing right now is destroying itself demographically.
I warned you but you decided to not listen: don't try inform yourself about realities outside of US borders by listening to what Americans say. Any American.
You correctly sense the US is in decline; it certainly is in a serious identity crisis. But you want to believe some Americans at least can make some good sense. You are way too optimistic. Vishnu sees it all: darkness is descending on the New World. A few last flickering lights can be seen, lone individuals with still 2 eyes functional, like there are Victor Davis Hanson, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi. Darkness sets in, winter is coming.
Other hopefuls are dim lights in the process of being switched off, like the overvalued Joe Rogan (who occasionally engages in smart gossip but not much else) or heroes like Jordan B. Peterson who now has created his own collection of dead bodies he picks apart like an efficient vulture, but will eventually eat himself in act of auto-cannibalism. While confusing this cannibalistic process with "we who wrestle with God".
You say this because you are not paying attention. West never thought of itself as "Center of Universe" because the West isn't somebody. In your mind "the West" is some sort of Crusader Knight, or perhaps a delusional POTUS, or an American Ignoramus who believes that everything that happens in the world is because of the USA. The proper definition of the West is: a collection of individuals who hold the individual as the corner stone of society. As anywhere however, individuals can suffer from delusions of grandeur.Europe must come to terms with that West no more West used 2B, is not anymore "center of the universe" .. other people's interest too of importance
Famous delusions of Grandeur in the West: Americans love to believe Ronald Reagan brought down the USSR. Or that the orange revolution in Ukraine was entirely a US generated proxy "coupe" against Russia by that originally Ukrainian bitch Nuland and her delusional freaky husband. They played a role but were not vital at all. Many other and much bigger forces and factors were at work. Lots of complexity and uncertainty too as in climate change science. Never only one variable or parameter at work. Wise Iranians don't fall for such one-trick pony claptrap. You better wise up and honor your forebears.
For some reason you bought into same delusions of grandeur Americans like to buy into. Reason is obvious: because you have Persian delusions of grandeur you see the same in others with similar tendencies. That's all.
And: Europe is different from America. American Century delusional US dream is obvious, but "European Century" was never a dream. European delusions of grandeur exist, but they go inward: wet dream of European Union, i.e. a United States of Europe. Europeans, after giving birth to the USA, have historically been most busy with trying to dominate the European neighborhood; recurring feudal feuds between various royal families and individuals with their own “royal” agenda.
Hitler's "Thousand year Reich" ambition was just another iteration of same, but as all the efforts before Adolfchen also this one failed and Europeans defaulted back to their mostly tribal units and borders. Latest attempt to dominate is EU in Brussels: a techno-burocrat takeover and hollowing out of national sovereignty of its member states. Euro currency was introduced as the first move to this unification: rest would follow by necessity, was the theory and hope. But now tribal forces are coming back, as they always do here.
They have no balls, only rockets. Hence they won’t procreate and take these lonely rockets with them into their grave. The song of the bearded virgins.Re Mull*hs, the characteristic of Iranian Shia is, they "flexible", they adapt to the ZeitGeist.
..
Many countries prefer China over the US
Washington’s evangelical desire to re-create the world in its own image has hit a roadblock because not everyone wants to be converted
By Andrey Sushentsov, the program director of the Valdai Club
What is the difference between the Chinese view and Western ideology ?
The West, still, in the logic of the Cold War, relies on the thesis that there is a liberal-democratic centre in the world around North America and Western Europe. It has been united by common domestic principles and envisages a common foreign policy based on shared values. The aim has been to expand this nucleus and gradually include other regions of the world, “grinding them down” and eliminating impulses for strategic autonomy in the security sphere.
This line was exhaustively outlined in 1992 by Anthony Lake, National Security Advisor to the then President George Bush senior, who declared in his speech at Johns Hopkins University that the task of the US was to expand the footprint of liberal democracies, which would eventually include all regions of the world. Other American strategies were also based on this ideological foundation: the doctrine of the “war on terror”, the “transformation of the Greater Middle East”, the “freedom agenda”, and so on.
At some point, of course, the rigid concept of “Russia is on the wrong track” emerged; a consequence of the US refusal to understand the complexity of the world and the fact that different nations have an understanding of their place in the historical process and international relations that is independent of the West.
China, like Russia, confronted this assertive approach early on and realised that there are both valuable benefits to be gained from engagement with the West and significant problems and circumstances that make it difficult to feel comfortable building relationships on principles of equality. As a result, Chinese leaders have found it necessary to speak out about what the principles of a meaningful and stable coexistence should look like.
The question of leadership on the world stage also concerns the worldviews of Western and Chinese leaders, which are very different. The Western tradition, based on the principles of competition, primacy, individualism and the free market, implies that the “global game” is a long one, consisting of several rounds, each of which must be won.
The Eastern approach is different, and Western intellectual thought in the field of psychology only began to professionally deal with it rather late, in the 1930s and 1940s. Carl Gustav Jung was one of the first in the West to interpret Eastern thought on the question of human interaction. Jung saw it as an important source of creative energy, including for dealing with ‘spasmodic’ international political situations such as those before the world wars. He observed that the East placed less emphasis on the causal principle. For example, in one of his lectures Jung gave the following example. When a Westerner finds himself in a crowd of people and asks what they are doing here and why they are gathered together, an Easterner will look at them and ask: “What does all this mean? What does providence, which has brought me here, want to tell me?”
There can be no solidarity here - these are two fundamentally different ways of looking at the world.
Why is this important from an international policy perspective? The Eastern principle is reflected in Confucianism as the idea that noble people have a mutual understanding and have different views. The Chinese notion of “he” (peace, harmony and concord) is quite explicit in Beijing’s foreign policy strategy. However in the West, most experts look at things like a football match, searching for a kind of “winning strategy.” In China, they see them as natural laws of human interaction, comparable to the laws of physics. This Eastern wisdom contains a worldview that must be understood when interpreting the Chinese line in international relations.
China’s political and economic power is the natural product of a special way of life. The country has achieved its current success by following the path it has chosen for itself. The Chinese are proud of this and present their path as a workable construct for other nations and the international community as a
whole. But, importantly, they are doing so without pressure. The West presents itself to the world as an example to be emulated, with which all problems in relations will disappear. By contrast, the Chinese model does not imply this: it recognises the uniqueness of other peoples’ experiences and their distinct civilisational paths. And here there is considerable solidarity with the Russian concept of world order.
This approach was adopted as a doctrinal idea in a series of speeches and publications by former Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov and enshrined in the 1997 Russian-Chinese Declaration on the New World Order and Multipolarity. This is the first bilateral doctrinal document that exhaustively describes the Russian and, to a large extent, Chinese understanding of the principles on which the world should be built - the principles of equality, non-interference, respect for mutual interests, recognition that we are different and that our civilisational differences are not an obstacle to cooperation. In 1997, the mainstream had very different ideas: that the world was flat, that “history is over”, that we should all be the same, and that if someone emphasised their civilisational uniqueness, it would inevitably lead to conflict.
Despite the comic optimism of the Western vision of the future, this concept also accepts that the path to the triumph of liberal democracy may well be paved with conflict. It is not without reason that ex-Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, when asked by a journalist whether it was the American invasion of Iraq that led to the outbreak of civil war in that country, replied: “Democracy will find its way.
The Russian and Chinese approach stands in opposition to this. It understands peace as a fragile, unstable and rare state of international relations. The duty of states is not just to observe what happens at home, but to provide a structure for common interaction.
The West has no such sense of fragility. On the contrary, an offensive, largely provocative tactic prevails: strike a balance and see what happens. This means thinking in short political cycles.
In addition, American political elites are probably spoiled by the relatively long period of peace and distance from the geographical centre of major conflicts: it is safe to live across two oceans, and it is easy to imagine that the rest of the world lives in the same safe environment. Of course, this approach is not shared by either Russia or China.
The Russian vision believes there are several key states responsible for order in their regions of the world, whose task is to maintain their patch. Important for understanding China’s approach to its own place on the international stage is the Belt and Road Initiative, which since its announcement in 2013 has developed primarily as a transport and logistics project. Now it is beginning to move towards the softer aspects of this strategy, in particular the rules that allow for the regulation of border crossings, rules for the inspection of goods, approaches to building common infrastructure. This is a more complex level, with different depths and dynamics in China’s bilateral relations with different countries.
This concept has a significant domestic dimension, as it is an important strategic guideline for China’s state enterprises and fixates the attention of Chinese society on these goals. The government’s focus on the creation of a common transport, technology and communications space linking China with other countries is clear and allows large companies to set indicators in their strategic planning to move closer to the common goal. For objective reasons, China is now becoming the most important trading partner for most countries in the world, so the Belt and Road allows it to structure and streamline its approaches to trade, bilateral cooperation in industry, energy and other areas.
For our country, Russia, the fact that China is open to pairing integration projects is crucial. Some time ago, President Vladimir Putin emphasised this at the Belt and Road Jubilee Forum in Beijing. The importance of other integration projects is recognised, and this resonates with the Russian idea of a Greater Eurasian Partnership, which should include the EAEU, ASEAN and other associations in addition to the Belt and Road programme. The integration process, based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and solidarity in defining the rules of interaction, is a conceptually different approach from the rigid list of rules that the West comes with.
.
The drone costs around $500, according to its Russian maker in the Sverdlovsk region.
It is made from plastic and some of its parts are 3-D printed.
The cost of an Abrams tank is north of $10 million.
The drones have also been used to knock out Bradley fighting vehicles and mine clearing systems using the Abrams chassis.
More than 50 Bradleys have been damaged or destroyed.
Interesting, thanks for posting. Sushentsov illustrates what's wrong with current Russia: mental illness of the kleptocrat, delusional intelligentsia. Concocting stories and percepts that sound "Pravda" but are same old source and excuse eventually for violent transgressions against enemies of the state; i.e. its own citizenry. To focus on externals like the West is just a distraction. Only fools buy into it.Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 3:12 amMany countries prefer China over the US
Washington’s evangelical desire to re-create the world in its own image has hit a roadblock because not everyone wants to be converted
By Andrey Sushentsov, the program director of the Valdai Club
[...]
